Bryan on Scouting gets new look and a forum feature

Easier navigation, a better mobile viewing experience and a forum feature that lets you connect with other Scouters to ask questions and share ideas. Bryan on Scouting has been redesigned to serve you better.

Today, thanks to the efforts of Online Editor Bryan Wursten (two Bryans are always better than one), we launch a revamped Bryan on Scouting.

We’re still on WordPress, but now I have more powerful blogging tools to make sure you can find the stories that interest you.

Those of you who read Bryan on Scouting on your smartphones will notice an improved experience there, as well. The newest post appears at the top of your screen now, and short excerpts with each post let you decide whether to click and read more.

But I’m most excited about the forums. It’s something I’ve wanted for a while, and it means you can ask questions and share stories with fellow Scouters.

Want help with a Cub Scout outing you’re planning? Post your question in the Cub Scout forum. Need advice for a problem in your Boy Scout troop? The Boy Scout forum is waiting. There’s also one for Venturing and one for General Scouting topics. I may add other forums categories later, but let’s start with those four.

Anyone with a valid email address can post in the forums, which I’ll moderate to make sure everyone remains friendly, courteous and kind.

You’ll notice tweaks to the redesign over the coming weeks as we work out any bugs. If you see any problems, leave a comment below or send me an email.

History of Scouting magazine’s blogs

My blogging journey began back on March 16, 2009, when I launched Cracker Barrel, a name drawn from those late-night gatherings where Scouters share ideas.

I had 27 hits that first day, and I’ll bet 25 were right here in the building.

Roughly two years later, on Jan. 21, 2011, the former Cracker Barrel blog became Bryan on Scouting, and by then we were up to 1,000 pageviews a day.

Today, that number is 10,000. I’m thankful for new readers and those who have been following this journey since 2009.

The forums should add value to the site. However, I do not like the banner ad at the top of the page. On an official BSA site, I do not think the top of the page should advertise someone else. On the side I understand, but not at the top. Personal preference.

My hubby will be thrilled that I have yet ANOTHER forum to belong to and make him crazy with what I read sometimes. As a group owner myself you may find that having everyone on moderation could quickly become very time consuming……..like Mike says, time will tell

I miss the ‘thumbs up/down’ too. The only drawback I had with the forums was when one reads it via their smartphone there is LOADS of scrolling especially when one posts a long answer. The forum shows the name on one side and the answer on the other half. So the name half is blank continuously as one scrolls. Would be nice to put the name at the top and use color background for each reply with the reply on a full screen (deleting the blank name half.)

As for change, I like the old look (I’m slow to changes) yet LOVE some of your new features.like forums. I stay away from Scouting magazine because I didn’t like their busy look unless I really need to read an article. I came instead to your blog because of the ‘personal’ feel and simplicity. Be careful in all the changes you don’t take away from the personal feel as I think its what draws many of us along with the LOADS of information you post about.

I couldn’t agree more! I love this blog, Bryan! Keep up the great work! You’ve answered so many questions I’ve had about so many things. I have a 16 year old Life Scout, about to become Eagle, and a 9 year old Webelos. You always seem to know what the questions are and give information I can use. I also love the information you give about upcoming events (that I would not otherwise have any knowledge of, like the 2015 upcoming World Jamboree in Japan, or the fact that the 100th NOAC is scheduled for the same time). It is a year away, and we must already plan for this, but without your blog, I wouldn’t have known any of this, so thank you! Also, I appreciate the commenteers, who also enlighten me.

Am I missing something? In the past I could easily “reblog” a story onto our private troop WP blog. Now when I select the “click to Press this” button it just opens the article in a new window. Any ideas how to reblog your wonderful articles easily? Thanks

Not a fan of full line headers and slash delimiters. It is just plain classier (and simply courteous) to have “Joe Blogger replied on”.
I’m gonna miss thumbs up/down buttons. It’s really important to know if what you’re saying resonates with other scouts and scouters.

I’m for the thumbs up, but not the thumbs down. Unless someone replied, there’s no way to know what a thumbs down meant: disagreement? poor spelling? factual error? just didn’t like the poster? Thumbs down can be gauged by the few or many thumbs ups.

And the double slashes do seem weird. Seems like a throwback to some programming language.

What happened to the feature which allowed us to “like” the article? I missed that because in part it told me who is out there reading and enjoying the article’s content. Still getting use to the new format, but it looks nice…

Oh…and how come every time I post something, I get a message asking me to confirm that I do want to receive updates? I did that the first time, and this morning I received a similar note asking me to confirm my WordPress subscription. Glitch? *smiling*

Am I missing something or when replies are made do they no longer show who you are replying to? I tried responding to another response and all it would say was I was responding to an anonymous person…….so not really sure I was responding to the person who was addressing something I had written………..

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Bryan on Scouting is the official blog of Scouting magazine, a Boy Scouts of America publication. Scouting magazine is published five times a year and is received by 1 million registered adult volunteers.